Client side social network response tracking

ABSTRACT

Embodiments of the present invention address deficiencies of the art in respect to response subscriptions and provide a method, system and computer program product for response tracking across social networks. In one embodiment of the invention, a social networking response tracking method can be provided. The method can be performed by client-side logic and can include associating subscribers with a user or a group of users based upon a posting by the user or a user in the group of users within a client computing device for the user, aggregating different postings from the user to correspondingly different forums disposed about a global computer communications network, and, notifying the subscribers of the aggregated postings.

REFERENCE TO CO-PENDING APPLICATIONS FOR PATENT

The present application is related to the following co-assigned U.S.Patent Applications, which are expressly incorporated by referenceherein:

U.S. application Ser. No. ______, entitled “CENTRALIZED SOCIAL NETWORKRESPONSE TRACKING” (docket no. RSW920070286US1 (350U1)), filed on Jan.10, 2008.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to the field of social networking and moreparticularly to tracking authored content amongst multiple differentsocial networks.

2. Description of the Related Art

Collaborative computing refers to the shared responsibility for contentelements in a computing system. Originating from notions in projectmanagement more than two decades ago, collaborative computingenvironments now span mere project management and calendaring andscheduling systems to full-fledged activity-centric environments. Recentdevelopments in Internet technologies—namely second generation Web basedcommunities, often referred to as social networks—have injected new lifeinto collaborative computing systems. Exemplary technologies that havebroadened the collaborative capabilities of such social networkingsystems include integration with Wikis, blogs, discussion forums, teamrooms, shared bookmarks, syndicate feeds and the like.

Wikis, blogs, forums and team rooms share similar qualities in that allinvolve a basic post and response paradigm. A post and response paradigmrefers to the posting of content by one collaborator and the responsiveposting of content by a responsive collaborator and so forth. Theprogenitor to the post and response paradigm can be found in the basicthreaded message board discussions three decades old. Whereas adiscussion forum is akin to a message board discussion, a team room isan advanced combination of different collaborative elements includingdiscussion forums to provide collaborative tools for a team ofcollaborators in order to advance a team goal. A blog is a form ofdiscussion forum where a single individual provides the driving contentand other collaborators optionally can post commentary addressing thepostings of the single individual. Thus, the blog can be viewed as apublicly viewable diary.

Wikis provide a variation on the discussion forum in that the permittedtopics of a wiki are terms to be defined and the definitions areprovided by the collaborators in order to converge upon a sociallyacceptable term definition amongst the collaborators. Finally, sharedbookmarks are bookmarks to content shared amongst collaborators andassociated with commonly specified tags. The more individuals applyingthe same tags to associated content, the more popular the content willbe viewed and will be visually represented as such in the form of “tagclouds”.

Within a social network, individual users identify other users sharingsimilar ideas, career paths, job responsibilities or teamresponsibilities. Whether or not different users actually know eachother, as part of the relationship between user postings by a given usercan be automatically routed to other interested users, as can responses.Referred to as a subscription or a syndicated feed, interested users canlink to many different forums, Wikis, blogs and the like in order to beassured a notification when a user publishes content. Of import, asubscription to the postings of a user always relates to the forum inwhich the posting is provided, whether that forum be a Wiki, blog,discussion forum, team room or other such similar space.

Still, for many, the interest in the postings of a user in one forum isnot limited to the forum alone and it can be desirable to subscribe tothe postings of the same user in different forums. To achieve a set ofsubscriptions for postings of a single user in multiple differentforums, correspondingly different subscriptions to correspondinglydifferent forums must be performed. To the extent that one is not awareof the various forums publishing the postings of the single user, one iscompelled to search the Internet for content.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the present invention address deficiencies of the art inrespect to response subscriptions and provide a novel and non-obviousmethod, system and computer program product for response tracking acrosssocial networks. In one embodiment of the invention, a social networkingresponse tracking method can be provided. The method can includeassociating subscribers with a user or a group of users based upon aposting by the user or a user in the group of users within a clientcomputing device for the user, aggregating different postings from theuser to correspondingly different forums disposed about a globalcomputer communications network, and, notifying the subscribers of theaggregated postings.

In an aspect of the embodiment, aggregating different postings from theuser to correspondingly different forums disposed about a globalcomputer communications network can include receiving notifications fromthe content browser associated with the user of the different postingsto the correspondingly different forums, and, for each notification,retrieving an associated posting from a corresponding one of the forumsand storing the retrieved posting in a data store in response to thenotification. In another aspect of the embodiment, aggregating differentpostings from the user to correspondingly different forums disposedabout a global computer communications network can include receivingnotifications from the different forms of the different postings by theuser, and, for each notification, retrieving an associated posting froma corresponding one of the forums and storing the retrieved posting in adata store in response to the notification.

In yet another aspect of the embodiment, associating subscribers with auser based upon a posting by the user can include selecting the postingby the user shown in a content browser, and activating a user interfacecontrol in the content browser configured to request an association withthe user. Notably, notifying the subscribers of the aggregated postingscan include filtering notifications for the subscribers according toforum type for the correspondingly different forums. Further, the methodcan include rendering a posting in one of the forums by the user in acontent browser of a subscriber, locating other postings by the user inothers of the different forums amongst the aggregated differentpostings, and listing the located postings in the content browser.Finally, the method can include providing a search engine interface tothe aggregated different postings.

In another embodiment of the invention, a social networking dataprocessing system can be provided. The system can include responsetracking logic executing in a client computing device of a user, and adata store of responses coupled to the client computing device. Theresponse tracking logic can include program code enabled to associatesubscribers with the user based upon a posting by the user to one of anumber of different forums coupled to the client computing device over acomputer communications network, to aggregate different postings fromthe user to the different forums in the data store, and to notify thesubscribers of the aggregated postings as the postings occur. Forexample, the different forums can include wikis, blogs, threadeddiscussion forums, team rooms and shared document libraries.

Additional aspects of the invention will be set forth in part in thedescription which follows, and in part will be obvious from thedescription, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The aspectsof the invention will be realized and attained by means of the elementsand combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims. It isto be understood that both the foregoing general description and thefollowing detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only andare not restrictive of the invention, as claimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute partof this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention andtogether with the description, serve to explain the principles of theinvention. The embodiments illustrated herein are presently preferred,it being understood, however, that the invention is not limited to theprecise arrangements and instrumentalities shown, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a pictorial illustration of a process for response trackingacross social networks;

FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration of a social networking systemconfigured for response tracking across social networks; and,

FIG. 3 is a flow chart illustrating a process for response trackingacross social networks.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the present invention provide a method, system andcomputer program product for response tracking across social networks.In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, the postingsof a user can be tracked across different forums. Subscribers to thepostings of the user, in turn, can be notified of the postings on thedifferent forums as the postings occur irrespective of the forum inwhich the postings occur and irrespective of whether or not thesubscribers are aware of the forums. The tracking and notification canoccur in logic coupled to each subscriber in concert with a remoteresponse tracking database, in logic coupled to participating forums inconcert with the remote response tracking database. In this way thesubscribers can track the postings of a user of interest withoutsearching out the different forums to which the user of interest posts.

In further illustration, FIG. 1 is a pictorial illustration of a processfor response tracking across social networks. As shown in FIG. 1, asubscriber 150 can subscribe to the forum postings 120A, 120B, 120N of auser 130 and an automated response tracking process 140 can monitor thepostings 120A, 120B, 120N of the user 130 to different forums 110A,110B, 110N irrespective of whether or not the subscriber 150 knows ofthe different forums 110A, 110B, 110N. Rather, the postings 120A, 120B,120N can be reported to the automated response tracking process 140which in turn can aggregate the postings 120A, 120B, 120N for deliveryto the subscriber 130. In this way, the subscriber 150 need not locateand subscribe to each of the different forums 110A, 110B, 110N in orderto read the postings of the user 130.

Notably, the automated response tracking process 140 can be managed in asocial networking system either as part of the clients of the system,the different forums in the system or some combination of both. Inillustration, FIG. 2 schematically depicts a social networking systemconfigured for client side response tracking across social networks. Thesystem can include a plurality of computing systems 240 each supportinga different discussion forum 250 and each being configured to receivepostings and to provide viewing of the postings by end users overcomputer communications network 220. To that end, the discussion forum250 can range from a blog to a wiki to a threaded discussion forum to ateam room, to a shared document library to name only a few variations.

Different users 210 (only a single user shown for purposes ofillustrative simplicity) can provide postings and responses to postings(collectively, “postings”) to different forums 250 from over thecomputer communications network 220. Notably, each of the users 210 canbe an individual, or alternatively a grouping of individuals. Responsetracking logic 280 coupled to user 210 can track the postings of theuser 210 in a data store of responses 260. In this regard, the responsetracking logic 280 can include program code enabled to receivenotification of the postings of the user and to aggregate the postingsin the data store of responses 260. The program code of the responsetracking logic 280 further can be enabled to notify differentsubscribers 230 to the postings of the user 210 of the postings fromover the computer communications network.

In this regard, each of the subscribers 230 need only specify the user210 and not any particular one of the forums 250 in order to receivenotification of the postings by the user 210 to the forums 250 from theresponse tracking logic 280. Optionally, the subscribers 230 can limitthe notifications of the postings based upon the nature of the forums250 to which postings have occurred. For example, different ones of thesubscribers 230 can limit notifications to postings to wikis andthreaded discussion forums, but not blogs. Yet further, a user interfaceadd-on can be provided to the content browser of each of the subscribers230 permitting the subscribers to activate the add-on when selecting aposting of the user 210 in order to subscribe to an aggregation ofpostings by the user 210 across all or selected ones of the forums 250.

Further, the program code of the response tracking logic 280 can trapthe postings as they occur in the client of the user 210, or theresponse tracking logic 280 can query or passively receive notificationof the postings by the different forums 250 registered with the responsetracking logic 280, or the program code of the response tracking logiccan scan each of the forums 250 seeking out new postings by the user210. Yet further, the receipt of notification of the postings by thedifferent forums 250 can be limited for the user 210 according to asecurity policy defining which content the user 210 can track. Finally,the postings can be stored locally, and thereafter submitted to acentral repository.

Once the data store of responses 260 has been populated with postings ofthe user 210, the data store of responses 260 can be searched, forinstance for a task bar anchored control, using a content searchingengine to provide further filtering and aggregating possibilities forthe subscribers 230. Further, the client task bar anchor control can beenhanced so that while tracking on an individual is being reviewed, anInternet search engine search can be conducted to collect a compositelist of results. Yet further, when the user 210 posts to a blog orcollaborative forum, upon saving the entry in the data store ofresponses 260, a unique signature block entry is appended and posted.This represents a unique tag that can be searched on for retrieval via asearch engine.

In yet further illustration of the operation of the response trackinglogic 280, FIG. 3 is a flow chart illustrating a process for responsetracking across social networks. Beginning in block 310, a posting by auser in a forum can be detected and in block 320 the user can becompared to a list of tracked users. In decision block 330, it can bedetermined whether or not the user is a tracked user. If so, in block340 the posting can be aggregated with other postings from other forums.Thereafter, in block 350 a list of subscribers to the postings of theuser can be retrieved. Finally, in block 360 notification of the postingcan be provided to each subscriber in the list excepting for thosesubscribers whom have expressed a preference not to receive postingsfrom a forum type shared by the forum in which the posting had beendetected.

Embodiments of the invention can take the form of an entirely hardwareembodiment, an entirely software embodiment or an embodiment containingboth hardware and software elements. In a preferred embodiment, theinvention is implemented in software, which includes but is not limitedto firmware, resident software, microcode, and the like. Furthermore,the invention can take the form of a computer program product accessiblefrom a computer-usable or computer-readable medium providing programcode for use by or in connection with a computer or any instructionexecution system.

For the purposes of this description, a computer-usable or computerreadable medium can be any apparatus that can contain, store,communicate, propagate, or transport the program for use by or inconnection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.The medium can be an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic,infrared, or semiconductor system (or apparatus or device) or apropagation medium. Examples of a computer-readable medium include asemiconductor or solid state memory, magnetic tape, a removable computerdiskette, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), arigid magnetic disk and an optical disk. Current examples of opticaldisks include compact disk-read only memory (CD-ROM), compactdisk-read/write (CD-R/W) and DVD.

A data processing system suitable for storing and/or executing programcode will include at least one processor coupled directly or indirectlyto memory elements through a system bus. The memory elements can includelocal memory employed during actual execution of the program code, bulkstorage, and cache memories which provide temporary storage of at leastsome program code in order to reduce the number of times code must beretrieved from bulk storage during execution. Input/output or I/Odevices (including but not limited to keyboards, displays, pointingdevices, etc.) can be coupled to the system either directly or throughintervening I/O controllers. Network adapters may also be coupled to thesystem to enable the data processing system to become coupled to otherdata processing systems or remote printers or storage devices throughintervening private or public networks. Modems, cable modem and Ethernetcards are just a few of the currently available types of networkadapters.

We claim:
 1. A social networking response tracking method comprising:associating a plurality of subscribers with a user based upon a postingby the user within a client computing device for the user; aggregatingdifferent postings from the user to correspondingly different forumsdisposed about a global computer communications network; and, notifyingthe subscribers of the aggregated postings.
 2. The method of claim 1,wherein associating a plurality of subscribers with a user based upon aposting by the user within a client computing device for the user,comprises associating a plurality of subscribers with a user group basedupon a posting by a user in the user group.
 3. The method of claim 1,wherein associating a plurality of subscribers with a user based upon aposting by the user within a client computing device for the user,comprises: selecting the posting by the user shown in a content browser;and, activating a user interface control in the content browserconfigured to forward a request to the client computing device for theuser for an association with the user.
 4. The method of claim 1, whereinaggregating different postings from the user to correspondinglydifferent forums disposed about a global computer communicationsnetwork, comprises: receiving notifications from the content browserassociated with the user of the different postings to thecorrespondingly different forums; and, for each notification, retrievingan associated posting from a corresponding one of the forums and storingthe retrieved posting in a data store in response to the notification.5. The method of claim 1, wherein aggregating different postings fromthe user to correspondingly different forums disposed about a globalcomputer communications network, comprises: receiving notifications fromthe different forms of the different postings by the user; and, for eachnotification, retrieving an associated posting from a corresponding oneof the forums and storing the retrieved posting in a data store inresponse to the notification.
 6. The method of claim 1, whereinnotifying the subscribers of the aggregated postings, comprisesfiltering notifications for the subscribers according to forum type forthe correspondingly different forums.
 7. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: rendering a posting in one of the forums by the user in acontent browser of a subscriber; locating other postings by the user inothers of the different forums amongst the aggregated differentpostings; and, listing the located postings in the content browser. 8.The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a search engineinterface to the aggregated different postings.
 9. A social networkingdata processing system comprising: response tracking logic executing ina client computing device for a user; and, a data store of responsescoupled to the client computing device; the response tracking logiccomprising program code enabled to associate a plurality of subscriberswith the user based upon a posting by the user to one of a plurality ofdifferent forums coupled to the client computing device over a computercommunications network, to aggregate different postings from the user tothe different forums in the data store, and to notify the subscribers ofthe aggregated postings as the postings occur.
 10. The system of claim9, wherein the different forums comprises forums selected from the groupconsisting of wikis, blogs, threaded discussion forums, team rooms andshared document libraries.
 11. A computer program product comprising acomputer usable medium embodying computer usable program code for socialnetworking response tracking, the computer program product comprising:computer usable program code for associating a plurality of subscriberswith a user based upon a posting by the user within a client computingdevice for the user; computer usable program code for aggregatingdifferent postings from the user to correspondingly different forumsdisposed about a global computer communications network; and, computerusable program code for notifying the subscribers of the aggregatedpostings.
 12. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein thecomputer usable program code for associating a plurality of subscriberswith a user based upon a posting by the user within a client computingdevice for the user, comprises computer usable program code forassociating a plurality of subscribers with a user group based upon aposting by a user in the user group.
 13. The computer program product ofclaim 11, wherein the computer usable program code for associating aplurality of subscribers with a user based upon a posting by the userwithin a client computing device for the user, comprises: computerusable program code for selecting the posting by the user shown in acontent browser; and, computer usable program code for activating a userinterface control in the content browser configured to forward a requestto the client computing device for the user for an association with theuser.
 14. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the computerusable program code for aggregating different postings from the user tocorrespondingly different forums disposed about a global computercommunications network, comprises: computer usable program code forreceiving notifications from the content browser associated with theuser of the different postings to the correspondingly different forums;and, computer usable program code for retrieving an associated postingfrom a corresponding one of the forums and storing the retrieved postingin a data store in response to the notification for each notification.15. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the computerusable program code for aggregating different postings from the user tocorrespondingly different forums disposed about a global computercommunications network, comprises: computer usable program code forreceiving notifications from the different forms of the differentpostings by the user; and, computer usable program code for retrievingan associated posting from a corresponding one of the forums and storingthe retrieved posting in a data store in response to the notificationfor each notification.
 16. The computer program product of claim 11,wherein the computer usable program code for notifying the subscribersof the aggregated postings, comprises computer usable program code forfiltering notifications for the subscribers according to forum type forthe correspondingly different forums.
 17. The computer program productof claim 11, further comprising: computer usable program code forrendering a posting in one of the forums by the user in a contentbrowser of a subscriber; computer usable program code for locating otherpostings by the user in others of the different forums amongst theaggregated different postings; and, computer usable program code forlisting the located postings in the content browser.
 18. The computerprogram product of claim 11, further comprising computer usable programcode for providing a search engine interface to the aggregated differentpostings.